title: Haloperidol plasma levels and acute clinical change in schizophrenia.
abstract: Twenty-five inpatients with acute exacerbations of schizophrenia (by Research Diagnostic Criteria) or schizoaffective disorder underwent a prospective haloperidol dosing procedure and were assigned fixed doses chosen to yield a distribution of haloperidol plasma levels above and below a hypothesized upper therapeutic limit of 18 ng/ml. Changes in Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale scores after 1 week of treatment were negatively correlated with haloperidol plasma levels, and the statistically optimum cutoff point fell near the predicted 18 ng/ml. Plasma level/response relationships over the subsequent 3 weeks were weaker but patients with higher plasma levels had consistently less improvement.
authors.affiliation: University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Coryell
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Perry
authors.forename: D D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Miller
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005260:Female; D006220:Haloperidol / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000097:blood* / Q000188:drug therapy; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology
chemical_list: D006220:Haloperidol